ELGIN — Seventeen-year-old Juan Tomelloso Chavez was pinned under an SUV on May 12 while working on a car in Elgin, Texas. The lift holding up the vehicle gave out while he was underneath it, according to officials with Bastrop-Travis Counties ESD No. 1.

Emergency responders found Chavez with no pulse and not breathing and immediately began CPR. "We pulled him out away from the car and the car wasn't stable at that time," said Ambrose Wolf, an advanced EMT who was among a team of seven first responders to arrive at the scene.

Chavez experienced a traumatic cardiac arrest when the weight of the SUV on his chest stopped his heart. The survival rate for traumatic arrest is between 2% and 8%, according to fire officials. "I actually thought it was a lot lower. I thought traumatic arrest had a 1% chance of survival with no deficits," Wolf said.

Chavez was airlifted to Dell Children's Hospital in Austin. He regained consciousness on May 16—his 17th birthday—and was discharged the following day. He walked away from the incident with only scratches on his face.

"I don't remember anything," Chavez said. "We were at a job and the accident happened." Chavez is a high school student who works on cars when he is not doing schoolwork.

His mother, Yesenia Chavez, recalled the aftermath of the accident. "My world fell apart and I didn't even know what happened exactly," she said. Describing her drive from Elgin to the hospital in Austin, she said it felt like "the longest car ride of her life." She added, "Honestly, it's a miracle. My son is really a miracle." On May 26, firefighters, emergency medics, law enforcement officers, and helicopter staff met with Chavez at First Baptist Church in Elgin.